Lifeguarding a Friendship
by yugifrozenfan
Summary: High School!AU Sequel to the Lifeguarding series. Anna and Elsa's friendship is in full swing but when Hans forces Elsa to question Anna's true intentions for befriending her, will their friendship end?


**AN: I'm back once again with another one-shot set AFTER the Lifeguard series. I know I said at the start of Lifeguarding Waterslides that I wasn't gonna do any more one-shots set in that world but after giving it a LOT of thought, I decided to do one but make it a high school AU because the way I ended the last installment was just begging to be elaborated on further. Again, the Frozen brand is owned by Walt Disney Animation Studios.**

After summer camp ended, Arendelle High was making preparations for the school to open again for the fall. Anna had kept her word and kept in contact with Elsa through the interim but just because she was in contact with the blonde during the rest of the summer didn't mean she would keep up their friendship when school began which was what was worrying Elsa was that nagging feeling that Anna wasn't being sincere and was just leading her on with what she said back at the camp and with the subsequent texts. She hoped that was not the case with Anna and she would find out when school began.

School arrived and Elsa was the first one on campus, as usual. She liked to come to school early because there was less people around. Less people equaled less bullying, right? Wrong. Elsa was in for a rude awakening when one of her bullies showed up and made preparations to do the standard "slam Elsa into the lockers when you see her" ritual.

"Really, Hercules? Can't you wait until it's the second day?" Elsa sarcastically asked, knowing full well that the boy would do it anyway, first day or no first day. He grabbed her jacket and was about do it when Elsa saw, out from the corner of her eye, the redhead approaching. Elsa expected her to do what she always did as she was friends with some of the jocks: turn the other cheek. They were back at school so the status quo was in play, right? Again, she was wrong and Herc found that out the hard way.

"Hercules! Release her! She didn't do anything to you!" Anna demanded, approaching the bigger kid. Herc stopped his action but didn't release Elsa.

"Really, Anna? You're defending the deadbeat for once?" he asked. Like Hans, he couldn't fathom why Anna was sticking up for Elsa.

"Yes", Anna said. Herc groaned and conceded but gave Elsa a look that told her she'd better watch it because if Hans found out what just transpired, he's not gonna be happy as he marched off. Elsa looked at Anna.

"Thank you", she said.

"What are friends for?" Anna asked and those words told Elsa that Anna was legitmate about her friendship with her from the start.

The next couple school days went fine. Anna stayed true to her word and sat with Elsa at lunch along with some of her nicer friends and defended her from her main bullies without overstepping the line between defending and bullying the bully. Only one problem was that once word reached back to Hans about what Anna had done in the episode at the lockers on the first day of school, he was determined to put a stop to Anna and Elsa's friendship but how would he go about doing it was another problem. Generally, first day of school meant clean slate but the reprecussions of what you did last year were still in effect. When Anna reported Hans for shoving Elsa into the lockers a couple days before the end of that year, he was told that if he didn't stop his teasing and tormenting of Elsa, he would lose his spot on the football team and be on probation into next school year. However, Hans was smart enough to notice a loophole in the principal's demand: it was PHYSICAL teasing and tormenting but that didn't mean he couldn't get her with his words, like he did at the camp but he couldn't get Elsa alone without casting suspicion onto himself or on the flipside, Anna or the school principal and if he was caught, what was he supposed to do: use exact words to justify his actions? Absolutely not in the principal's case. Hans came up with a simple solution which was to break Elsa with words and time it BEFORE Anna would show up at school, giving him more than enough time to think up a cover story if Anna caught on. Tomorrow, his nasty plan would commence and the outcome wasn't going to be a happy one and he was going to make sure of that, period.

Next morning, Elsa arrived at school early as usual and was surprised to find Hans already there, at his usual place near her locker.

"What do you want, Hans?" she asked, not even looking at him.

"To tell you the truth", he simply stated.

"The truth?" she asked, not quite getting what he was driving at.

"Are you not aware of the implications of Anna's friendship with you?" he asked again.

"Get to the point, Hans", Elsa ordered but she almost regretted saying those words almost instantly because her heart broke the second Hans' words left his mouth.

"She's only using you. The school hiarchy is still in effect, despite the fact you're Anna's friend now and still on the cheerleading squad. Besides, Anna has nothing to gain from being friends with you. Did you ever stop to consider that she only befriended you because she felt sorry for you after I slammed you into the lockers last year? Listen, Elsa, you're the low man on the totem pole. Anna doesn't wanna be friends with you and is only using you to make you feel better and make herself look good. That's the only thing she has to gain from your friendship. You're the low man on the totem pole and you'll always be the low man on the totem pole", Hans finished and walked off to his own locker, leaving Elsa in a state of shock and wondering what if Hans said was actually true. Sure, she was the low man on the totem pole and him and his punk friends made it a point to reminder her of that almost every time. While Anna did manage to convince some of Elsa's bullies to stand down and be nice (she did notice that some of her bullies, like Hercules & Shang, were being more cordial with her recently), she wondered if it was because of Anna or they were being legitmately cordial with both of them (she did notice that Hercules gave her a wave when he saw her getting out of her car and made no attempts to push her or shove her when she passed him. He also didn't shove her into the lockers like he used to). In fact, one of the reasons Elsa joined the cheerleading squad was so she could prove to the school and her bullies that she wasn't the "low man on the totem pole" in the school hiarchy but the problem with that was many of her bullies were jocks and the fact she had to cheer for them left a bad taste in her mouth. While she did gain some respect in that area, to the point of being made cheer captain this year, the bullying and teasing from Hans and his punk friends didn't stop until Anna had entered the picture. Hans, with his little speech, had reignited Elsa's fears that Anna was simply leading her on that summer but if Anna was merely leading her on with the friendship thing, why did she step in and save her from Hercules the first day because if she was indeed using her like Hans claimed, she won't have stopped Hercules and just turned the other cheek that day. Elsa didn't know what to think and hurt by Hans' harsh words, she just knew she had to get far away from that school and Anna as much as possible.

When Anna arrived at school, first thing she did was look for Elsa and was dejected to see she wasn't in school. So, naturally, the first place she went to was the office.

"Yes?" the receptionist sitting at the front desk asked when she looked up and saw Anna standing there.

"I was wondering. Did Elsa Winters ever show up at school today?" Anna asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible and trying to disguise the fact that the receptionist intimidated her a bit. Still, she held her ground.

"That's confidental information unless you are one of Miss Winters' parents or one of her teachers", the receptionist said and truth be told, she was indeed right. Anna wasn't one of Elsa's parents or one of her teachers and thus couldn't be told whether or not Elsa ever showed up or not. "However, I will say this since clearly you care about her well enough to ask about her regardless of the fact legally, students shouldn't have that information. She showed up this morning but checked out after first period but before advisory. She looked distraught about something but it wasn't my place to ask", the receptionist said.

"Okay, thank you!" Anna said and bolted outside to the front of the school. Next step was to find Elsa but there was another problem: Anna had no clue where Elsa ran off to. She couldn't ask the receiptionist again because she would now presumably have a strike aganist her for giving Anna information that was supposed to be confidental in the first place. Elsa had no favorite hotspots, no favorite hangouts, no favorite anything really, from what she had found out from their numerous texting sessions over the summer, which left her with little to no clues as to actually where she could have gone. She had to start from square one and figure out who had Elsa interacted with up until her flight from school and hopefully maybe get some insight as to where her friend could have went. She saw one of the girls from their shared advisory and second periods, recoginized her and approached her.

"Hey!" she called. The girl stopped.

"Yes, can I help you?" the girl asked.

"Did you see Elsa in advisory?" Anna inquired.

"No, she left before that period", the girl stated.

"Crap! You know where she is?" Anna tried again.

"No, I don't. Sorry if I couldn't be much help", the girl stated and walked to her next class, leaving Anna puzzling. She questioned Shang, Hercules and even Elsa's first period teacher on her whereabouts. Again, no dice. However, although it pained her to do so, the last person Elsa interacted with before her school flight was Hans so naturally, he would know where Elsa went. Hans faked surpise when Anna approached.

"Hans! Where's Elsa?!" she said.

"She's not at school? How shocking!" he stated, obviously faking surprise at Elsa's conpicious absence and trying to suppress a laugh.

"Cut the crap, Hans! You know something and you're not telling me! WHERE. IS. ELSA?!" Anna again demanded.

"Look, I have no clue where Elsa went to! All I know is that she was hurt from what I said and she took off", Hans admitted.

"What did you tell her?" Anna asked, concerned.

"The truth. I told her that you were just using her for your own purposes and that you had nothing to gain from your friendship", he admitted. Anna shook her head.

"That. Is. NOT. TRUE! YOU made her the way she is! All closed-off! With all your teasing and bullying, YOU made her that way, Hans!" Anna exclaimed and left Hans standing there, unable to process exactly WHAT just happened. After all, what Anna said was techinally true. Elsa was shy by nature but all the bullying and teasing from Hans & his punk friends only served as a way to make her pull up her walls further. Anna's next search was the parking lot where Elsa's car was still there, leading her to deduce that Elsa ran from the school instead of taking her car. Sure enough, there was a note tucked into her windshield wiper. Anna plucked the note and read it.

The note said the following: Anna, I have reason to believe that you were only using your friendship with me for your own personal gain. I was afraid you were leading me on during the summer and it turns out, you were. Although I'm still grateful you saved me from Hercules the first day, that doesn't change the fact that you betrayed me. Goodbye & don't contact me ever again. Elsa.

Anna's heart broke at Elsa's harsh words. She would NEVER betray or use Elsa for her own personal gain. Thinking back to her conversation with Hans, she remembered that Hans had told her that he told Elsa 'the truth' that she was being used by her which was definitely not true. Despite the fact that the note mentioned not to do so, Anna called Elsa's phone.

"Pick up, Elsa! Please pick up!" she muttered while waiting. On the third ring, Elsa picked up.

"Hello?" Anna sighed. Elsa's voice was heaven in her ears.

"Elsa! It's Anna. Where are you?" Anna asked desperately.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that, Anna. You used me and betrayed my trust in you", Elsa remained firm.

"Elsa, it's not true! Hans was lying to you! If I was using you, I would have let Hercules just slam you into the lockers like normal but I didn't because I was sincere when I said I wanted to be friends. Now, tell me where you are! Did you leave campus?", Anna said, with the last part being a question.

"Would my car stil be here if I had left campus?" Elsa asked. Anna turned around and sure enough, there she was behind one of the portables.

"Elsa!" Anna ran towards her and grabbed her in a bear-crushing hug. One question was still nagging at her head. "Why?"

"Well, I was indeed shocked that Hans would suggest the possibility of you using me which is what I feared all summer long. Even though I knew you were being legitmate with the Hercules thing, I still had to be sure of your sincerity of your friendship", Elsa explained. She had tested Anna's loyalty from Hans' speech to her onward. Hercules, Shang & the recepitionist were all in on it, Elsa having contacted them in advance after Hans gave the speech to her. Also, the note itself was a test as well. If Anna honored the note, it would have proved Hans right that Anna was indeed just using her but if she called, it proved that Anna was indeed trustworthy.

"But you checked out of school", Anna began, remembering what the receiptionist told her.

"Not exactly. I went to the office and explained to the receiptionist what I was going to do and she suggested that I pretend that I had checked out of the school which I took", she explained further.

"So, did I pass your test?" Anna asked. Elsa gave her a smile.

"You passed".

 **AN: That's It! That's It! I'd say that Hans really deserved the smackdown Anna gave him in the second half. Anyway, R &R!**


End file.
